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OU football: Sooners defense gets thrown around in loss to Longhorns

Early in the third, Mike Davis zipped past Zack Sanchez for a 38-yard touchdown.

“Any team that plays man-to-man on us, we can throw it down the field,” Davis said. “I feel like it's disrespectful.

“You've just got to test everybody.”

Texas offensive coordinator Major Applewhite said the Longhorns took advantage of the Sooners aggressiveness in the secondary.

“We just felt like they were so good outside — that Colvin and Sanchez were so good outside — it's one of those deals where you've got to make their strength their weakness,” Applewhite said. “If they're going to jump routes and sit on things, pop guys inside as they're backpedling in man, then we better do some things at quarterback to make them bite on some things.

“It was one of those dream-day games.”

The Longhorns added some double moves and other things to take advantage of the Sooners aggressiveness.

But as bad as Stoops felt about the big plays and his defense's third-down struggles, Texas run success was more troubling to him.

“We've got to find something that works and works better and be a little better against the run,” Stoops said. “The run will keep you off-balance. That will make your day long as a defense. That was the tale of today. There were no good calls today.”

The Longhorns also took advantage of Dominique Alexander, the freshman who started in place of the injured Nelson.

Two of the early third-down conversions were on plays that went toward Alexander.

He had 19 tackles, but Texas kept going his way.

“They just outplayed us and outcoached us regardless of what the situation is,” Stoops said. “It's never one or two guys. It's a collective group. When we've played well, we've played collectively well and when we've played bad, we played collectively bad today.

“I thought they played with an edge that we certainly didn't play with.”

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by Ryan Aber

OU Athletics Reporter

Ryan Aber has worked for The Oklahoman since 2006, covering high schools, the Oklahoma City RedHawks, the Oklahoma City Barons and OU football recruiting. An Oklahoma City native, Aber graduated from Northeastern State. Before joining The...